In order to communicate via TCP/IP to your FreeRunner, a basic understanding of the networking expectations is required. Each end of the USB connection forms a LAN (local area network) segment, with the FreeRunner's USB networking device at one end (default 192.168.0.202) and your laptop or desktop at the other end (192.168.0.200 in this guide).

In order to communicate via TCP/IP to your FreeRunner, a basic understanding of the networking expectations is required. Each end of the USB connection forms a LAN (local area network) segment, with the FreeRunner's USB networking device at one end (default 192.168.0.202) and your laptop or desktop at the other end (192.168.0.200 in this guide).

Normally, your desktop machine will know how to reach the Internet, having had its gateway (the IP address of the machine or device which knows how to send packets to machines beyond your subnet) configured via DHCP or statically (probably via a router). For the FreeRunner to reach the Internet, your desktop will have to be configured to route and masquerade (NAT) packets from it.

Normally, your desktop machine will know how to reach the Internet, having had its gateway (the IP address of the machine or device which knows how to send packets to machines beyond your subnet) configured via DHCP or statically (probably via a router). For the FreeRunner to reach the Internet, your desktop will have to be configured to route and masquerade (NAT) packets from it.

Line 26:

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=== So is it "usb0" or is it "eth1"? ===

=== So is it "usb0" or is it "eth1"? ===

−

* The documentation below refers to the network interface name on the host side as "usb0". However, the actual name is determined by your host system, and many host systems will rename the interface based on the mac (or hardware) address presented by the Neo or Freerunner. Use the "ifconfig -a" command, or use "dmesg" to examine the output from your host's kernel, to find which interface name was actually assigned to your device. If it wasn't "usb0", it will almost always be the next available "eth''n''" name.

+

* The documentation below refers to the network interface name on the host side as "usb0". However, the actual name is determined by your host system, and many host systems will rename the interface based on the mac (or hardware) address presented by the Neo or Freerunner. Use the <code>ifconfig -a</code> command, or use <code>dmesg</code> to examine the output from your host's kernel, to find which interface name was actually assigned to your device. If it wasn't "usb0", it will almost always be the next available "eth''n''" name.

In all the steps below where you see the interface referred to as "usb0", you may need to substitute the interface name that your host assigned.

In all the steps below where you see the interface referred to as "usb0", you may need to substitute the interface name that your host assigned.

−

For those interested in the technical details, the "usb0" interface name is used on the host system when the mac (hardware) address presented by the Freerunner or Neo is a locally-generated (random) address. Because the address is random, the ability to easily manage the interface with network managment tools is somewhat compromised. In fact, the Freerunner has been assigned official mac addresses, including addresses for the USB network interface. When these addresses are correctly used on the Freerunner (which is the case with the Qi bootloader, and with certain of the distros for the Freerunner), then the host system sees official mac addresses, and responds by configuring a permanent network interface for that device. By convention, this permanent interface is one of the "eth" interfaces. The specific interface name chosen will be remembered, and will be used each time that specific Freerunner is connected, and used only for that Freerunner. This is a particularly useful feature for users who have multiple USB-networked devices.

+

For those interested in the technical details, the "usb0" interface name is used on the host system when the mac (hardware) address presented by the Freerunner or Neo is a locally-generated (random) address. Because the address is random, the ability to easily manage the interface with network managment tools is somewhat compromised. In fact, the Freerunner has been assigned official mac addresses, including addresses for the USB network interface. When these addresses are correctly used on the Freerunner (which is the case with the Qi bootloader, and with certain of the distros for the Freerunner), then the host system sees official mac addresses, and responds by configuring a permanent network interface for that device. By convention, this permanent interface is one of the "eth" interfaces. The specific interface name chosen will be remembered, and will be used each time that specific Freerunner is connected, and used only for that Freerunner. This is a particularly useful feature for users who have multiple USB-networked devices.

As of the time of this writing, the Android and SHR distros will correctly pass the official mac address to the host, and will appear as "eth''n''" interfaces on the host.

As of the time of this writing, the Android and SHR distros will correctly pass the official mac address to the host, and will appear as "eth''n''" interfaces on the host.

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=== My distro ===

=== My distro ===

−

There are many differences between distributions, both on the phone and an the desktop. Also within a single distribution there can be big changes over time, so remember that solutions provided here might not always exactly match your situation.

+

There are many differences between distributions, both on the phone and on the desktop. Also within a single distribution there can be big changes over time, so remember that solutions provided here might not always exactly match your situation.

+

+

If all your approaches fail, you might want to consider using [http://knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html Knoppix] (6.3 WorkedForMe(tm)) or another [http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=cd live distribution].

+

+

{{Note|IP adresses are changed in new SHR-CORE images, phone 192.168.7.2 host: 192.168.7.1 so use theses adresses if you use the manual}}

= Simple Manual Linux Configuration =

= Simple Manual Linux Configuration =

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Line 87:

If the previously described simple approach does not work, you may try the more complex one.

If the previously described simple approach does not work, you may try the more complex one.

−

<pre>iptables -A POSTROUTING -t nat -j MASQUERADE -s 192.168.0.0/24

+

<pre>

−

sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

+

sudo iptables -A POSTROUTING -t nat -j MASQUERADE -s 192.168.0.0/24

−

ip addr add 192.168.0.200/24 dev usb0</pre>

+

sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

+

sudo ip addr add 192.168.0.200/24 dev usb0

+

</pre>

If your Internet connection is also in the range 192.168.0.x then instead you might want to use only:

If your Internet connection is also in the range 192.168.0.x then instead you might want to use only:

−

<pre>ip addr add 192.168.0.200/28 dev usb0</pre>

+

<pre>sudo ip addr add 192.168.0.200/28 dev usb0</pre>

(This will just map the net from 192.168.0.192 to 192.168.0.207 onto usb0. If you get the error 'Cannot find device "usb0"', double-check that your FreeRunner is turned on and connected by USB. Ensure also that the uhci_hcd module is loaded on your PC. If that doesn't work, try unplugging and replugging the USB cable.)

(This will just map the net from 192.168.0.192 to 192.168.0.207 onto usb0. If you get the error 'Cannot find device "usb0"', double-check that your FreeRunner is turned on and connected by USB. Ensure also that the uhci_hcd module is loaded on your PC. If that doesn't work, try unplugging and replugging the USB cable.)

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And in this case you should enable ARP proxy on internet facing interface INSTEAD of using iptables:

And in this case you should enable ARP proxy on internet facing interface INSTEAD of using iptables:

−

<pre>sysctl net.ipv4.conf.eth2.proxy_arp=1</pre>

+

<pre>sudo sysctl net.ipv4.conf.eth2.proxy_arp=1</pre>

This assuming that eth2 is connected to ISP.

This assuming that eth2 is connected to ISP.

Then

Then

−

<pre>ip link set usb0 up</pre>

+

<pre>sudo ip link set usb0 up</pre>

or (deprecated)

or (deprecated)

−

<pre>ifconfig usb0 up</pre>

+

<pre>sudo ifconfig usb0 up</pre>

Then (ideally, not as root):

Then (ideally, not as root):

Line 127:

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Like mentioned above, if the default Neo subnet 192.168.0.X is already used, it might be necessary to change the

Like mentioned above, if the default Neo subnet 192.168.0.X is already used, it might be necessary to change the

Note: After reflashing the Neo you have to copy the "MAC Address" from "Auto usb0" into your new connection.

Note: After reflashing the Neo you have to copy the "MAC Address" from "Auto usb0" into your new connection.

−

Then, based on [http://sebastian-bergmann.de/index.php?url=archives/801-OpenMoko-Freerunner-and-Ubuntu.html#feedback these instructions], you should be able to setup masquerading by running the following commands on your Ubuntu PC:

+

Then, based on these instructions ('''BROKEN LINK REMOVED'''), you should be able to setup masquerading by running the following commands on your Ubuntu PC:

<pre>sudo iptables -I INPUT 1 -s 192.168.0.202 -j ACCEPT

<pre>sudo iptables -I INPUT 1 -s 192.168.0.202 -j ACCEPT

Line 608:

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Firestarter can be used to allow the freerunner to connect to the internet without manually running iptables commands. Firestarter is in the ubuntu repositories and can be installed with a

Firestarter can be used to allow the freerunner to connect to the internet without manually running iptables commands. Firestarter is in the ubuntu repositories and can be installed with a

<pre>sudo aptitude install firestarter</pre>

<pre>sudo aptitude install firestarter</pre>

−

Once installed, the firestarter preferences dialog has a network section, under which a drop-down box appeasr which is labeled "Local network connected device." Select the freerunner, generally "Unknown device(usb0)" and check the "Enable internet connection sharing" box. Uncheck local network DHCP and the freerunner should be able to access the internet.

+

Once installed, the firestarter go to

−

-Tested in ubuntu 8.10--[[User:makito|Makito]] February 26, 2009

+

* Edit > preferences dialog > network setting section,

−

+

* choose internet connection device (e.g. <tt>eth0</tt>)

−

Be aware that when firestarter is running it by default blocks all incoming connections, so if you where using your linux box as a mail-server, web-server or whatever those connections will be blocked. It is quick and easy to add exceptions for whatever protocol you are using in the policy tab of firestarter.

* check the "Enable internet connection sharing" box. Uncheck local network DHCP and the freerunner should be able to access the internet.

−

+

Tested in

−

Note: Firestarter needs to run as root.

+

* Ubuntu 8.10--[[User:makito|Makito]] February 26, 2009

+

* Ubuntu 9:04--[[User:chrestomanci|David]] September 2009

+

* Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, [[User:Niebert|Niebert]] July 2010

+

{{Note|Firestarter needs to run as root. Be aware that when firestarter is running it by default blocks all incoming connections, so if you where using your linux box as a mail-server, web-server or whatever those connections will be blocked. It is quick and easy to add exceptions for whatever protocol you are using in the policy tab of firestarter.}}

=== Ubuntu Workaround ===

=== Ubuntu Workaround ===

Line 777:

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NetworkManager will assign a new ip address for the OpenMoko if link goes down for a while. You can fix this by issuing '''ifup usb0''' again.

NetworkManager will assign a new ip address for the OpenMoko if link goes down for a while. You can fix this by issuing '''ifup usb0''' again.

In order to communicate via TCP/IP to your FreeRunner, a basic understanding of the networking expectations is required. Each end of the USB connection forms a LAN (local area network) segment, with the FreeRunner's USB networking device at one end (default 192.168.0.202) and your laptop or desktop at the other end (192.168.0.200 in this guide).

Normally, your desktop machine will know how to reach the Internet, having had its gateway (the IP address of the machine or device which knows how to send packets to machines beyond your subnet) configured via DHCP or statically (probably via a router). For the FreeRunner to reach the Internet, your desktop will have to be configured to route and masquerade (NAT) packets from it.

Normally, none of this is an issue, but problems can arise when the subnet between the FreeRunner and your desktop overlap with the desktop to the router (which forms a second LAN), since your desktop might not know how to route traffic properly.

In other words: if your existing router and desktop have addresses 192.168.0.(something) changing them to e.g. 192.168.1.(something) might save you a lot of troubleshooting later. A discussion of this is here.

The documentation below refers to the network interface name on the host side as "usb0". However, the actual name is determined by your host system, and many host systems will rename the interface based on the mac (or hardware) address presented by the Neo or Freerunner. Use the ifconfig -a command, or use dmesg to examine the output from your host's kernel, to find which interface name was actually assigned to your device. If it wasn't "usb0", it will almost always be the next available "ethn" name.

In all the steps below where you see the interface referred to as "usb0", you may need to substitute the interface name that your host assigned.

For those interested in the technical details, the "usb0" interface name is used on the host system when the mac (hardware) address presented by the Freerunner or Neo is a locally-generated (random) address. Because the address is random, the ability to easily manage the interface with network managment tools is somewhat compromised. In fact, the Freerunner has been assigned official mac addresses, including addresses for the USB network interface. When these addresses are correctly used on the Freerunner (which is the case with the Qi bootloader, and with certain of the distros for the Freerunner), then the host system sees official mac addresses, and responds by configuring a permanent network interface for that device. By convention, this permanent interface is one of the "eth" interfaces. The specific interface name chosen will be remembered, and will be used each time that specific Freerunner is connected, and used only for that Freerunner. This is a particularly useful feature for users who have multiple USB-networked devices.

As of the time of this writing, the Android and SHR distros will correctly pass the official mac address to the host, and will appear as "ethn" interfaces on the host.

There are many differences between distributions, both on the phone and on the desktop. Also within a single distribution there can be big changes over time, so remember that solutions provided here might not always exactly match your situation.

If all your approaches fail, you might want to consider using Knoppix (6.3 WorkedForMe(tm)) or another live distribution.

NOTE: IP adresses are changed in new SHR-CORE images, phone 192.168.7.2 host: 192.168.7.1 so use theses adresses if you use the manual

Try this first (as root on your desktop, with FreeRunner attached via USB cable and booted properly, not at the Boot Menu). If it works, then you can add permanent configuration or use more sophisticated setups below.

This simple way has been tested with many Linux distributions (Fedora, SuSE, Red Hat, Debian and others) and network configurations. It was even successfully applied to connect another Linux based handhelds like TDS Nomad and surely can be recommended as the first attempt. The way assumes that you have the recent Linux distribution with USB networking enabled and also rather typical network setup.

With the device connected configure usb0 interface (as root or via sudo like in this example):

Log in to the Neo (you do not need to be a root on the desktop host just to log in).

$ ssh root@192.168.0.202

On some SHR Version the default root password is blank.

If you get an error like: "Permission denied, please try again." try to set a new password on the phone:

open a terminal on the phone and type:

passwd

then enter a new password and establish a new ssh connection.

Note that an empty passwords won't work on some SHR releases!

Do not forget to allow ssh (open the port 22) on your firewall so that you can connect to the device. If you suspect any firewall issues, the simplest way is to unplug the main Internet cable leaving only Neo connected and then temporary turn the firewall off.

Also, some old or narrowly configured Linux distributions may not have USB networking support. For such cases the simple way might be just to upgrade.

If your Internet connection is also in the range 192.168.0.x then instead you might want to use only:

sudo ip addr add 192.168.0.200/28 dev usb0

(This will just map the net from 192.168.0.192 to 192.168.0.207 onto usb0. If you get the error 'Cannot find device "usb0"', double-check that your FreeRunner is turned on and connected by USB. Ensure also that the uhci_hcd module is loaded on your PC. If that doesn't work, try unplugging and replugging the USB cable.)

And in this case you should enable ARP proxy on internet facing interface INSTEAD of using iptables:

sudo sysctl net.ipv4.conf.eth2.proxy_arp=1

This assuming that eth2 is connected to ISP.

Then

sudo ip link set usb0 up

or (deprecated)

sudo ifconfig usb0 up

Then (ideally, not as root):

ssh root@192.168.0.202

The default password is blank.

Due to the fact that in most cases your Neo will use the same dns servers as your computer uses, you can automate the process of writing dns servers to your phone:

Again if your net already is 192.168.0.0, replace the POSTROUTING statement with

iptables -A POSTROUTING -t nat -j MASQUERADE -s 192.168.0.0/28

This simple script will set up routing for your Freerunner and than copy resolv.conf with dns addresses straight to the phone.
All you have to do is connect phone to the computer, run the script and enjoy internet connection from your phone.

Like mentioned above, if the default Neo subnet 192.168.0.X is already used, it might be necessary to change the
Neo IP adress and subnet.
To achieve this, edit /etc/network/interfaces on the Neo (and do "/etc/init.d/networking restart").
In the following example the Neo will use the IP address 192.168.100.1 (instead of the default 192.168.0.202)
within the network 192.168.100.X (instead of 192.168.0.X),
another private class C network.
(The netmask indicates that the first 3 bytes (all bits set) are used to determine the subnet
and the last byte (no bits set) to determine the machine.)
The gateway (the computer, the Neo is attached to) also has to be part of the subnet and is expected to be 192.168.100.200 (instead of 192.168.0.200) here.

(The network entry seems to be redundant information, since it can be derived from address and netmask?)
Note that wiki articles usually expect default settings and you have to adjust the IP adress, gateway, etc entries according to your changes.

Your Linux desktop/laptop needs to have suitable support. In particular you will need to have enabled USB networking and masquerading support in the kernel. For default kernels in many Linux distributions this will already be the case.

On some systems, you may have firewall rules which prevent this working - such as added by the iptables service on Fedora. You may care to stop these, and/or review any rules or policies you think might cause issues.

The most relevant table is the nat table, which controls translation of addresses:

iptables -L -t nat -v -n

Unless you have a special setup, you'll want to see only the MASQUERADE rule that you apply below, and ACCEPT as the default policy. Also look at the filter table:

iptables -L -t filter -v -n

If this contains anything in the FORWARD chain, then this may prevent passing packets. It can be flushed with:

If you've connected, and your connection keeps dropping and then coming back up, make sure that you don't have automatic wireless network connections - in some distros, the the wireless connection scripts automatically disable the usb network interface.

In addition to routing issues, to be practical, DNS will need to work. In some cases, you might already be running a DNS server on your desktop such as dnsmasq or bind9, which is the default assumption the FreeRunner makes. In other cases, you'll need to configure DNS to that of your router, or a DNS server further out on the internet such as that provided by your ISP.

These settings will be lost on reboot. You can set the DNS for the next connect, by adding the following to the end of the usb0 setting in /etc/network/interfaces, right above the bluetooth networking section:

If you move about, making assumptions about the network may not be convenient, and it is possible to proxy DNS requests via your host laptop (which you are also taking with you), without running or installing a DNS server. There are a number of ways to do this:

If so, then this is sufficient for most internet access. But manual changes to resolv.conf are usually lost later if for example one uses DHCP, especially for WiFi, and so may not be convenient to configure manually.

Based on Hotplugging usbnet (BROKEN LINK REMOVED) by Marcin 'Hrw' Juszkiewicz.
These instructions should keep you from having to run the Simple Manual Linux Configuration every time you plug in and want to connect to an Openmoko device. One run and then you're done!

If the Simple Manual Linux Configuration does not work for your OS or Distro (MacOS X, MS Windows, etc) there may be instructions here that work for you.

You need to load the cdce kernel module (if it is not already linked into your kernel). As root do:

# kldload cdce

The Neo should then show up as cdce0 interface and you can handle the cdce0 interface just like the usb0 device under Linux. For more information see the cdce manpage. An easy way to assign the IP address to the cdce0 interface is using the devd(8) daemon. Create the following two files,

This script allows ipforwarding so your device can access the internet through your pc.

To begin, create /etc/udev/rules.d/80-freerunner.rules replacing the mac address with the one from your device (run ifconfig on the pc, or use udevinfo, note that it must match udev's case):

# This file causes programs to be run on device insertion.
# See udev(7) for syntax.
# http://www.reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html#example-netif
KERNEL=="eth*", ATTR{address}=="00:1f:11:01:28:d6", RUN+="/usr/local/sbin/freerunner-usb-add.sh"

This is more sophisticated than the manual setup. The 'auto usb' stanza ties into the Linux hotplug system so that when the device appears and vanishes, as happens when the FreeRunner is connected via USB, this is run.

In addition, the desktop-side netmask is limited to a much smaller range, so that overlapping subnets are less of a problem - Linux will use more specific routes first when deciding where to send packets.

Another possible configuration that adds DNS forward and removes
the iptables changes after unplugging:

One can see /etc/udev/rules.d that a device plugged in on USB will be called eth1 (or eth2 etc.). Go to System->Administration->Network (or edit /etc/network/interfaces) and add the parameters for eth1; static ip 192.168.0.200, netmask 255.255.255.192

Ubuntu 8.10 doesn't work as expected if you used /etc/network/interfaces to automate the connection.
Network manager likes to latch onto the network device and add a default route through 192.168.0.202, breaking your network connection.
Network manager also says you can't edit or remove this connection from its list. I'm going back to making the connection manually.
Using the /usr/local/sbin/freerunner-usb-add.sh script for some automatism can be a workaround:

NOTE: Firestarter needs to run as root. Be aware that when firestarter is running it by default blocks all incoming connections, so if you where using your linux box as a mail-server, web-server or whatever those connections will be blocked. It is quick and easy to add exceptions for whatever protocol you are using in the policy tab of firestarter.

Use wicd instead of networkmanager:
It is much further in development than networkmanager yet and doesn't make any problems with USB networking. You can use the "normal" settings in /network/interfaces.

If you have trouble connecting to the freerunner after installing qi, check to see if the address has changed to eth<n>. Many host systems will assign eth<n> addresses when they detect an official (non-locally-generated) mac address on the usb network connection. Qi passes in the official Openmoko USB mac address; u-boot does not.

This next file configures the static routes that we need to communicate to the subnet. Since it has "usb0" in the name, the system will automatically apply these static routes any time that the usb0 interface is configured. (i.e. when you connect the FreeRunner)

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/usb0-routes:

ADDRESS0=192.168.0.200
NETMASK0=255.255.255.0

Now we need to restart the network system to pick up the changes.

service network restart

This didn't work for me (Mandriva 2008.1), giving errors from Shorewall. However, simply using MCC, Network->Sharing Internet Access worked fine. You need to connect Neo when starting it. --Alih 18:50, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

One way to automate all this is to create /etc/conf.d/net.usb0 as follows. It sets IP forwarding and the iptables rules all in one go. It removes the iptables rules and disables ip forwarding when the FreeRunner is unplugged.
Therefore the net.usb0 service must be hotpluggable (/etc/rc.conf or /etc/conf.d/rc).

Reportedly, the ssh daemon (dropbear 0.49) on the FreeRunner appears to have a bug when sending the exit status back to the client. From time to time you receive an exit status of 255.

To avoid ssh adding a new line for every ssh host-key to your known_hosts you can add the following to the phone section in ~/.ssh/config (or see the snippet at : USB Networking#Changing_host_keys bellow)

When prompted for a password either hit enter for no password (not really a good idea) or enter a password for this key. ssh into the phone and create ~/.ssh:

root@phone# mkdir ~/.ssh

Then from your desktop copy the .pub file to the phone.

user@host$ scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub root@phone:~/.ssh/authorized_keys

You should now be able to ssh directly into the phone without a password prompt using a command like 'ssh root@phone' from the account user@host because the public key in the file user@host:~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub is contained in the list of keys which have access in the file root@phone:~/.ssh/authorized_keys (since scp is used, only one key exists, but you can grant access to the phone from more than one account, for example user@host, user@laptop).

To make ssh login as root by default, add the following lines to ~/.ssh/config:

Host phone
User root

Replace phone with the hostname or ip of your phone. You should now be able to ssh into the phone without having to type root@ every time.

To disable password logins (after setting up key access) edit /etc/init.d/dropbear and change the following line:

This is suggested because ssh on your desktop may complain if the key matching a certain IP changes (stored in .ssh/known_hosts). Now you have set this, you can issue the following command to connect to your moko (the usual "root@" isn't required as it's set by the user section in the config file) :

you need to set the DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS environment variable to the value on the FreeRunner before launching the process from your desktop. You can find the value of this variable by using a command such as

ps auxwwwwe | grep -m 1 DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS

Note that you must run that command on the FreeRunner. Back on your desktop, run the process you want with the env command like this:

After this you can close the ssh session. Back on the desktop computer, run:

DISPLAY=openmoko:0 xclock

Note that the xhost command will allow remote applications on 192.168.0.200 to access the X server. It will allow anyone on the desktop machine to access the X server of the neo, including snooping anything you type on it. To disallow remote applications again, run this in the neo:

After you get the SSH connection working, it is possible to use Konqueror, Nautilus or another sftp - enabled tool to browse the phone filesystem and deploy the test applications. Just enter sftp://root@192.168.0.202 into address bar.

Openmoko Networking Setup

In order to communicate via TCP/IP to your FreeRunner, a basic understanding of the networking expectations is required. Each end of the USB connection forms a LAN (local area network) segment, with the FreeRunner's USB networking device at one end (default 192.168.0.202) and your laptop or desktop at the other end (192.168.0.200 in this guide).

Normally, your desktop machine will know how to reach the Internet, having had its gateway (the IP address of the machine or device which knows how to send packets to machines beyond your subnet) configured via DHCP or statically (probably via a router). For the FreeRunner to reach the Internet, your desktop will have to be configured to route and masquerade (NAT) packets from it.

Normally, none of this is an issue, but problems can arise when the subnet between the FreeRunner and your desktop overlap with the desktop to the router (which forms a second LAN), since your desktop might not know how to route traffic properly.

In other words: if your existing router and desktop have addresses 192.168.0.(something) changing them to e.g. 192.168.1.(something) might save you a lot of troubleshooting later. A discussion of this is here.

Things to keep in mind

Suspend

When the FreeRunner suspends it disables its USB networking interface. Therefore it is a good idea to turn off the FreeRunners suspend function when using USB networking.

So is it "usb0" or is it "eth1"?

The documentation below refers to the network interface name on the host side as "usb0". However, the actual name is determined by your host system, and many host systems will rename the interface based on the mac (or hardware) address presented by the Neo or Freerunner. Use the "ifconfig -a" command, or use "dmesg" to examine the output from your host's kernel, to find which interface name was actually assigned to your device. If it wasn't "usb0", it will almost always be the next available "ethn" name.

In all the steps below where you see the interface referred to as "usb0", you may need to substitute the interface name that your host assigned.

For those interested in the technical details, the "usb0" interface name is used on the host system when the mac (hardware) address presented by the Freerunner or Neo is a locally-generated (random) address. Because the address is random, the ability to easily manage the interface with network managment tools is somewhat compromised. In fact, the Freerunner has been assigned official mac addresses, including addresses for the USB network interface. When these addresses are correctly used on the Freerunner (which is the case with the Qi bootloader, and with certain of the distros for the Freerunner), then the host system sees official mac addresses, and responds by configuring a permanent network interface for that device. By convention, this permanent interface is one of the "eth" interfaces. The specific interface name chosen will be remembered, and will be used each time that specific Freerunner is connected, and used only for that Freerunner. This is a particularly useful feature for users who have multiple USB-networked devices.

As of the time of this writing, the Android and SHR distros will correctly pass the official mac address to the host, and will appear as "ethn" interfaces on the host.

My distro

There are many differences between distributions, both on the phone and an the desktop. Also within a single distribution there can be big changes over time, so remember that solutions provided here might not always exactly match your situation.

Simple Manual Linux Configuration

Try this first (as root on your desktop, with FreeRunner attached via USB cable and booted properly, not at the Boot Menu). If it works, then you can add permanent configuration or use more sophisticated setups below.

The shortest way

This simple way has been tested with many Linux distributions (Fedora, SuSE, Red Hat, Debian and others) and network configurations. It was even successfully applied to connect another Linux based handhelds like TDS Nomad and surely can be recommended as the first attempt. The way assumes that you have the recent Linux distribution with USB networking enabled and also rather typical network setup.

With the device connected configure usb0 interface (as root or via sudo like in this example):

If your eth0 interface is also in the same 'range' (e.g. 192.168.0.105) then you can do the following:

sudo route add -host 192.168.0.202 dev usb0

The login

Log in to the Neo (you do not need to be a root on the desktop host just to log in).

$ ssh root@192.168.0.202

On some SHR Version the default root password is blank.

If you get an error like: "Permission denied, please try again." try to set a new password on the phone:

open a terminal on the phone and type:

passwd

then enter a new password and establish a new ssh connection.

Note that an empty passwords won't work on some SHR releases!

Do not forget to allow ssh (open the port 22) on your firewall so that you can connect to the device. If you suspect any firewall issues, the simplest way is to unplug the main Internet cable leaving only Neo connected and then temporary turn the firewall off.

Also, some old or narrowly configured Linux distributions may not have USB networking support. For such cases the simple way might be just to upgrade.

The more advanced way

If the previously described simple approach does not work, you may try the more complex one.

If your Internet connection is also in the range 192.168.0.x then instead you might want to use only:

ip addr add 192.168.0.200/28 dev usb0

(This will just map the net from 192.168.0.192 to 192.168.0.207 onto usb0. If you get the error 'Cannot find device "usb0"', double-check that your FreeRunner is turned on and connected by USB. Ensure also that the uhci_hcd module is loaded on your PC. If that doesn't work, try unplugging and replugging the USB cable.)

And in this case you should enable ARP proxy on internet facing interface INSTEAD of using iptables:

sysctl net.ipv4.conf.eth2.proxy_arp=1

This assuming that eth2 is connected to ISP.

Then

ip link set usb0 up

or (deprecated)

ifconfig usb0 up

Then (ideally, not as root):

ssh root@192.168.0.202

The default password is blank.

Due to the fact that in most cases your Neo will use the same dns servers as your computer uses, you can automate the process of writing dns servers to your phone:

Again if your net already is 192.168.0.0, replace the POSTROUTING statement with

iptables -A POSTROUTING -t nat -j MASQUERADE -s 192.168.0.0/28

This simple script will set up routing for your Freerunner and than copy resolv.conf with dns addresses straight to the phone.
All you have to do is connect phone to the computer, run the script and enjoy internet connection from your phone.

Changing the Neo IP address

Like mentioned above, if the default Neo subnet 192.168.0.X is already used, it might be necessary to change the
Neo IP adress and subnet.
To achieve this, edit /etc/network/interfaces on the Neo (and reboot /etc/init.d/networking).
In the following example the Neo will use the IP address 192.168.100.1 (instead of the default 192.168.0.202)
within the network 192.168.100.X (instead of 192.168.0.X),
another private class C network.
(The netmask indicates that the first 3 bytes (all bits set) are used to determine the subnet
and the last byte (no bits set) to determine the machine.)
The gateway (the computer, the Neo is attached to) also has to be part of the subnet and is expected to be 192.168.100.200 (instead of 192.168.0.200) here.

(The network entry seems to be redundant information, since it can be derived from address and netmask?)
Note that wiki articles usually expect default settings and you have to adjust the IP adress, gateway, etc entries according to your changes.

Linux Kernel Support

Your Linux desktop/laptop needs to have suitable support. In particular you will need to have enabled USB networking and masquerading support in the kernel. For default kernels in many Linux distributions this will already be the case.

USB Networking support

The following options need to be enabled:

CONFIG_USB_USBNET (Multi-purpose USB Networking Framework. Module will be called usbnet)

CONFIG_USB_NET_CDCETHER (CDC Ethernet support. Module will be called cdc_ether)

Firewall Issues

On some systems, you may have firewall rules which prevent this working - such as added by the iptables service on Fedora. You may care to stop these, and/or review any rules or policies you think might cause issues.

The most relevant table is the nat table, which controls translation of addresses:

iptables -L -t nat -v -n

Unless you have a special setup, you'll want to see only the MASQUERADE rule that you apply below, and ACCEPT as the default policy. Also look at the filter table:

iptables -L -t filter -v -n

If this contains anything in the FORWARD chain, then this may prevent passing packets. It can be flushed with:

iptables -t filter -F FORWARD

Other Issues

In case the Freerunner was recognized and you could assign the IP address to the device, but you get after trying to connect with 'ssh root@192.168.0.202' an error like:

ssh: connect to host 192.168.0.202 port 22: No route to host

Then your USB cable could be broken. Try to connect with another cable.

Regular drop-outs

If you've connected, and your connection keeps dropping and then coming back up, make sure that you don't have automatic wireless network connections - in some distros, the the wireless connection scripts automatically disable the usb network interface.

DNS

In addition to routing issues, to be practical, DNS will need to work. In some cases, you might already be running a DNS server on your desktop such as dnsmasq or bind9, which is the default assumption the FreeRunner makes. In other cases, you'll need to configure DNS to that of your router, or a DNS server further out on the internet such as that provided by your ISP.

Configure Default Neo DNS

DNS is configured in /etc/resolv.conf on your FreeRunner.

You should add the IP address of the DNS servers as provided by your ISP. Check your router's or PC's network status for the nameserver IP addresses.

These settings will be lost on reboot. You can set the DNS for the next connect, by adding the following to the end of the usb0 setting in /etc/network/interfaces, right above the bluetooth networking section:

Proxying DNS from Desktop/Laptop

If you move about, making assumptions about the network may not be convenient, and it is possible to proxy DNS requests via your host laptop (which you are also taking with you), without running or installing a DNS server. There are a number of ways to do this:

If so, then this is sufficient for most internet access. But manual changes to resolv.conf are usually lost later if for example one uses DHCP, especially for WiFi, and so may not be convenient to configure manually.

Testing Your Connection

You should be able to connect to your Neo! Make sure you can ping your Neo to be sure.
ping 192.168.0.202

Then log into your Neo using ssh:
ssh root@192.168.0.202
The default password is blank (press enter).

You can also scp files back and forth. You can telnet, SSH, SMB or do whatever you want if you install software that enables you to set up TCP/IP network over your USB connection.

Now, make sure you can ping back to your desktop
ping 192.168.0.200
(Note that some systems like Vista, don't respond to ICMP ping by default)

Try pinging the outside world (a Google IP address)
ping 74.125.19.147
This demonstrates that masquerading is working - your desktop is sending/receiving packets to the wider internet.

Connection script

With the contents of this page I made this script to easily get your FreeRunner connected with your PC.

All you have to do is run the script (after connect the FR to the PC):

sudo sh usb_networking.sh

You have to:

Disconnect FreeRunner

Connect it again

Re-run the script and voila the connection is there!

Notes

It needs root privileges to be executed for the iptables and sysctl commands (if you don't like sudo, login as root instead)

It uses the eth1 interface so on OM and other distros different from SHR, you have to put usb0

Thanks to Tony Berth: if the first time you run the script you can't ping/access 192.168.0.202.

OS or Distro Specific & Automatic Configuration

Based on Hotplugging usbnet by Marcin 'Hrw' Juszkiewicz.
These instructions should keep you from having to run the Simple Manual Linux Configuration every time you plug in and want to connect to an Openmoko device. One run and then you're done!

If the Simple Manual Linux Configuration does not work for your OS or Distro (MacOS X, MS Windows, etc) there may be instructions here that work for you.

MacOS X

Windows

There is also a very helpful tutorial for connecting with Vista at [1].

FreeBSD

You need to load the cdce kernel module (if it is not already linked into your kernel). As root do:

# kldload cdce

The Neo should then show up as cdce0 interface and you can handle the cdce0 interface just like the usb0 device under Linux. For more information see the cdce manpage. An easy way to assign the IP address to the cdce0 interface is using the devd(8) daemon. Create the following two files,

For devices showing as eth1

This script allows ipforwarding so your device can access the internet through your pc.

To begin, create /etc/udev/rules.d/80-freerunner.rules replacing the mac address with the one from your device (run ifconfig on the pc, or use udevinfo, note that it must match udev's case):

# This file causes programs to be run on device insertion.
# See udev(7) for syntax.
# http://www.reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html#example-netif
KERNEL=="eth*", ATTR{address}=="00:1f:11:01:28:d6", RUN+="/usr/local/sbin/freerunner-usb-add.sh"

This is more sophisticated than the manual setup. The 'auto usb' stanza ties into the Linux hotplug system so that when the device appears and vanishes, as happens when the FreeRunner is connected via USB, this is run.

In addition, the desktop-side netmask is limited to a much smaller range, so that overlapping subnets are less of a problem - Linux will use more specific routes first when deciding where to send packets.

Another possible configuration that adds DNS forward and removes
the iptables changes after unplugging:

Ubuntu 9.04 - the Jaunty Jackalope

One can see /etc/udev/rules.d that a device plugged in on USB will be called eth1 (or eth2 etc.). Go to System->Administration->Network (or edit /etc/network/interfaces) and add the parameters for eth1; static ip 192.168.0.200, netmask 255.255.255.192

Ubuntu 8.10 - Easy Way

1. Connect Neo to PC and wait about a minute when NetworkManager stops scanning usb for dhcp (wait when icon in the tray switches to normal).

Ubuntu Issues

Ubuntu 8.10 doesn't work as expected if you used /etc/network/interfaces to automate the connection.
Network manager likes to latch onto the network device and add a default route through 192.168.0.202, breaking your network connection.
Network manager also says you can't edit or remove this connection from its list. I'm going back to making the connection manually.
Using the /usr/local/sbin/freerunner-usb-add.sh script for some automatism can be a workaround:

The bug is that the DRIVERS variable isn't set at all when the device is unplugged.

This appears to be fixed in Ubuntu 8.04 Mattt 11:38, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Actually it appears that it's not fixed, but patching that file and disconnecting and reconnecting the phone works perfectly. --Johndoesacc 18:37, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, yes, it must be fixed because it worked for me out-of-the-box without tweaking the udev rule on 8.04 --EtienneG November 26th, 2008

It wasn't solved in my case, as of 3. February 2009 in 8.04 (AMD64), the patch above solved my problem thou. --VilleWitt February 3td, 2009.

Iptables Configuration with GUI

Firestarter can be used to allow the freerunner to connect to the internet without manually running iptables commands. Firestarter is in the ubuntu repositories and can be installed with a

sudo aptitude install firestarter

Once installed, the firestarter preferences dialog has a network section, under which a drop-down box appeasr which is labeled "Local network connected device." Select the freerunner, generally "Unknown device(usb0)" and check the "Enable internet connection sharing" box. Uncheck local network DHCP and the freerunner should be able to access the internet.
-Tested in ubuntu 8.10--Makito February 26, 2009

Be aware that when firestarter is running it by default blocks all incoming connections, so if you where using your linux box as a mail-server, web-server or whatever those connections will be blocked. It is quick and easy to add exceptions for whatever protocol you are using in the policy tab of firestarter.
-Tested in ubuntu 9:04--David September 2009

Note: Firestarter needs to run as root.

Ubuntu Workaround

Use wicd instead of networkmanager:
It is much further in development than networkmanager yet and doesn't make any problems with USB networking. You can use the "normal" settings in /network/interfaces.

Note

Because of it's dependencies it deinstalls networkmanager.

Ubuntu and QI

If you have trouble connecting to the freerunner after installing qi, check to see if the address has changed to eth<n>. Many host systems will assign eth<n> addresses when they detect an official (non-locally-generated) mac address on the usb network connection. Qi passes in the official Openmoko USB mac address; u-boot does not.

Mandriva

This first file configures the network system for the usb0 interface. Any time you plug in the FreeRunner the interface will be configured.

This next file configures the static routes that we need to communicate to the subnet. Since it has "usb0" in the name, the system will automatically apply these static routes any time that the usb0 interface is configured. (i.e. when you connect the FreeRunner)

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/usb0-routes:

ADDRESS0=192.168.0.200
NETMASK0=255.255.255.0

Now we need to restart the network system to pick up the changes.

service network restart

This didn't work for me (Mandriva 2008.1), giving errors from Shorewall. However, simply using MCC, Network->Sharing Internet Access worked fine. You need to connect Neo when starting it. --Alih 18:50, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Automatic Configuration

One way to automate all this is to create /etc/conf.d/net.usb0 as follows. It sets IP forwarding and the iptables rules all in one go. It removes the iptables rules and disables ip forwarding when the FreeRunner is unplugged.
Therefore the net.usb0 service must be hotpluggable (/etc/rc.conf or /etc/conf.d/rc).

Archlinux

SSH Extras

Reportedly, the ssh daemon (dropbear 0.49) on the FreeRunner appears to have a bug when sending the exit status back to the client. From time to time you receive an exit status of 255.

To avoid ssh adding a new line for every ssh host-key to your known_hosts you can add the following to the phone section in ~/.ssh/config (or see the snippet at : USB Networking#Changing_host_keys bellow)

UserKnownHostsFile /dev/null

You might want to use keys to bypass the login prompt too.

SSH Keys

From desktop to FreeRunner

To generate ssh keys for use as a login mechanism type:

user@host$ ssh-keygen -t rsa

When prompted for a password either hit enter for no password (not really a good idea) or enter a password for this key. ssh into the phone and create ~/.ssh:

root@phone# mkdir ~/.ssh

Then from your desktop copy the .pub file to the phone.

user@host$ scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub root@phone:~/.ssh/authorized_keys

You should now be able to ssh directly into the phone without a password prompt using a command like 'ssh root@phone' from the account user@host because the public key in the file user@host:~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub is contained in the list of keys which have access in the file root@phone:~/.ssh/authorized_keys (since scp is used, only one key exists, but you can grant access to the phone from more than one account, for example user@host, user@laptop).

To make ssh login as root by default, add the following lines to ~/.ssh/config:

Host phone
User root

Replace phone with the hostname or ip of your phone. You should now be able to ssh into the phone without having to type root@ every time.

To disable password logins (after setting up key access) edit /etc/init.d/dropbear and change the following line:

Changing host keys

This is suggested because ssh on your desktop may complain if the key matching a certain IP changes (stored in .ssh/known_hosts). Now you have set this, you can issue the following command to connect to your moko (the usual "root@" isn't required as it's set by the user section in the config file) :

ssh moko

GUI on desktop through SSH

To get the GUI on the FreeRunner onto the desktop via USB, you can use ssh as follows (execute on desktop):

xhost +
ssh -l root -X -v 192.168.0.202

Using this, run openmoko-finger-demo for example, and it will open up on the desktop. To get landscape view, just resize the GUI window on the desktop.

you need to set the DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS environment variable to the value on the FreeRunner before launching the process from your desktop. You can find the value of this variable by using a command such as

ps auxwwwwe | grep -m 1 DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS

Note that you must run that command on the FreeRunner. Back on your desktop, run the process you want with the env command like this:

Display Remote Applications on FreeRunner

After this you can close the ssh session. Back on the desktop computer, run:

DISPLAY=openmoko:0 xclock

Note that the xhost command will allow remote applications on 192.168.0.200 to access the X server. It will allow anyone on the desktop machine to access the X server of the neo, including snooping anything you type on it. To disallow remote applications again, run this in the neo:

DISPLAY=:0 xhost -192.168.0.200

sftp

After you get the SSH connection working, it is possible to use Konqueror, Nautilus or another sftp - enabled tool to browse the phone filesystem and deploy the test applications. Just enter sftp://root@192.168.0.202 into address bar.

sshfs

You can use sshfs to mount the phones filesystem into the hosts filesystem. Make sure that fuse-sshfs is installed and that you are allowed to use fuse. Now run: